Compact copier apparatus is frequently designed as a moving document copier where the document to be copied is moved across a stationary viewing station. This design is chosen over alternative arrangements in order to conserve space and make the copier machine smaller. One of the problems, however, of a moving document copier is that a multipage document, such as a book, cannot be fed into the document moving mechanism since such feeders are customarily built to receive a single page at a time only. Consequently, when it is desired to copy a multipage document, the operator must remove the document feeder, place the book on top of the copier and manually press down on the top of the book. When the machine starts, the book is moved by rollers on top of the machine across the viewing station. Unfortunately, as the book moves across the viewing station, there is a tendency for the book to rotate if the manual pressure being exerted by the operator's hand has a component of force direction other than downward into the copier surface. Since it is difficult for the operator to maintain a manual force on a moving object with a downward component only, book rotation causing distorted copies is a frequently encountered problem in moving document machines.
A previous solution to the problem described above is illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,510,218 where a transparent plate has been provided upon which a book is placed. The plate, with the open book, is then positioned upon the top of the copier in the document feed path with both facing pages of the open book within the copy path. The operator places his hand on the top of the book to press the center break of the book down to get a good copy of the print near the center break. He then turns the machine on, and the transparent plate is driven across the viewing station by rollers positioned on the top of the machine. The operator continues to press on the book as it is moved with the transparent plate. At least two serious problems result, however, from this solution to the problem; (1) when not in use, the transparent plate must be stored, (2) since the plate usually has a substantial thickness, the lens must have a significant depth of view in order to image properly both a single document which is fed without the plate and a book which is fed with the plate. This consequently adds to the cost of the lens or requires some additional components in the document feed path as described in the above-mentioned patent, and (3) hand pressure on the back of the binding of the open book tends to break the binding.
Even in copy machines where documents are held in a stationary manner while being copied, operators find it necessary to press down on the unsupported center break of a book thus tending to destroy the binding of the book.
In addition to the problems described above, note that when the operator presses down on top of the book, the pages tend to roll into the center break, the book gutter, creating a tendency to crease the book pages and distort the copy.
The instant invention provides superior solutions to the above problems. It provides the important advantage of a supporting mechanism for the center break of a book to lessen book wear. In a moving document copier, it provides the advantage of enabling the copying of multipage documents preventing rotation as the document moves across the viewing station and it does this with or without the use of a supplementary transparent plate. It also provides rolling support for both the page to be copied and a facing page which lies outside of the document feed path, thus further preventing book wear and, by lessening drag during the copy process, lessening the probability of a distorted copy as well.